Review: Birds of Prey #19
[Editor’s Note: This review may contain spoilers]
Writer: Kelly Thompson
Art: Juann Cabal
Colors: Adriano Lucas
Letters: Clayton Cowles
Reviewed by: Matthew B. Lloyd
Summary
Dinah and Sin face of against the League of Assassins in the safe house while Cassandra and Barda waste page space rescuing John Constantine from…whatever… .
Negatives
Flipping things around with “negatives” first in order to create a better flow… .
Every time I get ready to do a Birds of Prey review for this current run I psyche myself up trying to tell myself that MAYBE this issue Kelly Thompson will have figured things out and deliver a really, really good issue. She’s an Eisner winner, her Captain Marvel run was enjoyable. But, she really seems lost as to how to make Birds of Prey get over the “mediocre/ slightly above average” hump. It boils down to a couple things that are very clear in this issue: 1) She doesn’t know what to do with her “large” cast, and she has a penchant for elements that just don’t fit well with the Birds of Prey concept.
The part of the issue (and last issue) with Barda and Cassandra Cain is pointless. Thompson has decided that this is her cast and she has to use them, but she doesn’t use them wisely. There’s no deeper reason for what they are doing. It’s fairly boring and has no bearing on the part of the issue that is important. If she wants the two to have a separate adventure she’s got to make it just as interesting as what’s going on with Dinah and Sin. Even if she wants Barda and Cass to just bond, make that the thing, send them on an outing where they really get to know each other. Cass’ mom Lady Shiva has a long history with Barbara and Dinah, she was a critical element in the story in which Dinah rescued Sin and brought her to the United States. The roots are there, but instead Thompson just gives us pointless nonsense that is entirely superficial.
Negatives Cont’d
Furthermore, the whole magic thing is just out of place with the Birds of Prey concept. Thompson has used it from the outset of this run and it has yet to feel anything but forced. If Thompson wants to write an off the wall Doom Patrol style book, that’s fine, if she want’s to write an esoteric Constantine series, ok, but at the end of the day these elements work against the Birds of Prey concept. They just don’t fit and they feel forced. Maybe Thompson would feel more comfortable writing Justice League Dark? That’s what this series really feels like, especially with Megaera living inside Sin.
Megaera’s appearance and completely alters and detracts from what Thompson has going with the part of the issue focused on Dinah and Sin. It also makes me feel like it’s feeling very “samey” as her Absolute Wonder Woman. It’s like it’s the same themes with magic/ supernatural and “skilled combat” explored. The details are the same, but Sin’s issue with her “partial possession” by Megaera feels very similar to Diana’s struggle with the consequences of using magic.
Positives
Birds of Prey #19 starts out very strong with some excellent introspection by Dinah. This proves that Thompson has done her homework, as Dinah’s attitude about being a skilled fighter slots right in with her characterization by Gail Simone her Birds of Prey issues from the early to mid 2000’s. She nails it when Dinah thinks, “…feeling great about being great at causing pain there’s real danger there.” Thompson is on the right track with this. Having Dinah and Sin face consequences from years ago when Dinah rescued Sin from being trained for the League of Assassins is a great idea. This is the best idea Thompson has had for this series . It’s personal, it references continuity, and it has some serious stakes for the characters. It’s exactly the sort of thing one expects for a Birds of Prey comic and feels exactly like the thing that one would’ve found in a BoP comic by Chuck Dixon or the aforementioned Gail Simone.
There’s a really nice double page splash in Birds of Prey #19 with multiple images of the characters battling the Assassins that is well executed. Thompson has included pages like this in many issues of this series and it always works. Juann Cabal does a nice job with it here!
Verdict
Birds of Prey #19 is one of the better issues of this run. However, it still can’t get above the “mediocre/ slightly above average” hump. There’s some great stuff with the Dinah/ Sin storyline while losing any momentum or sense of relevance with the Cassandra/ Barda/ Constantine plot. Thompson shows she CAN write good things in this series, but allows her predilection for magic/ supernatural and inability to handle her chosen cast detract from the elements of this series that are working.
